The bill of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, concerning the Energy Regulatory Authority and the extension of its powers to water and waste, was submitted to the Plenary Session of the Parliament and is headed for a vote.
At the time of the submission of the bill to Parliament, both DEYA and RAE workers went on strike. In Ioannina, the workers of the DEWA of Ioannina staged a 24-hour strike and a rally outside the town hall, demanding the withdrawal of the bill, which, as they stress, is the first step towards the privatization of water.
“The government refuses to realize that water is not a commercial product to be brought under the control of the regulatory authority, which is purely used as a front for the privatization of water in our country and through which it attempts to overcome the decisions of the CoE and the Constitution which prohibit their privatisation”, state the representatives of the workers.
On the side of the workers were the member of parliament of Ioannina from SYRIZA – P.S. Meropi Tzoufi and the municipal councilor of Ioannina and KKE MP candidate Oli Tsoumani, as well as N.T. of ADEDY, the Labor Center of Ioannina and the Association of Workers in Local Government Areas.
Mrs. Tzouffi expressed the complete opposition of SYRIZA to the registered bill, even saying that it puts a “tombstone” on water as a public good, while she pledged to restore critical services under public control. “Privatization of water was deliberately set by the government as a prerequisite for the disbursement of the Recovery Fund. We are committed to bringing public enterprises back under public control, because in addition to the problems that exist for labor relations, there are cost and quality issues. Where this has happened in other countries, there have been problems,” he noted.
“Developments in this direction have been launched for years,” noted Ms. Tsoumani, repeating the request for public and quality water and noting the effects of the bill on irrigation water management.
Solidarity with the workers who are mobilizing, they expressed on behalf of N.T. of ADEDY the president Christos Grivas and the representative of the administration of EKI Dimitris Kalyvas, both stressing that water is not a commodity.